State funeral?

In my opinion the funeral of Sir Ed, to be held next Tuesday, would have been better off being a private affair than this state funeral that has been planned. I thought the idea of a state funeral is that members of the public could attend, if not actually in the building, then out on the lawn. But the lawn outside the Church in Parnell is small and at a guess could hold 1,000 people - maybe 2,000 - well even at a wild guess 5,000. Hardly the solution for the tens of thousands of people that would like to attend.

So it appears that the funeral is really just for friends and family plus the ruling elite - is this what they mean by state funeral?

The funeral really should be held at the museum if the intention is that New Zealanders attend. I know they won't change the plans now, but a quick fix would be to transmit the funeral to a big screen on the lawn outside the museum. This way the non-elite can gather to say their final farewell to this great man. The Hearse can then drive through the domain on it's way to the crematorium.

Update: Turns out that's exactly what's going to happen - oops. I'm just so use to the powers that be stuffing thing's up, that I jumped the gun.